Messages - Enkida

and thanks for fixing the other mistakes! I hate to do this to you, but when you fixed chapter 43, page 25, panel 2's black glove problem, you forgot to redraw the 3 ring bracelet thing on her arm though sorry!

Just FYI, I used Polly's image (that I drew) as a bloglovin' button. Not that I think we're going to start seeing Polly floating around the internet representing the Bloglovin' widgit, but I did want to let you know. (feel free to gank if you have a blog, I don't care )

Crest. I chose this pose on purpose because I don't want to see his dick, no thanks.

Bernadette:

I think my run of naked fanart may be coming to an end, unless I missed another "main" character. I dunno. Does Regina count as a main? She's been in Book 1 so little relatively. Or Glyph? Is there anyone else we wanna see naked?

The first rule of the secret Flipside page is you do not talk about the secret Flipside page.

... or contribute to it.

oh, and quite seriously - fanart is always a creative commons license for me. Take it and do with it what you will, just either credit me as the artist in public or don't tell me what you do with it in private... . If anyone wants to modify a Flipside fanart picture (like colour it or whatever) go right on ahead, you don't need my permission for that either. #usedtolegaldisclaimers

Actually, I wouldn't want to see her cheat, either. But I do want to see her facing her problem of seeing things in absolute black and whites. Nude art must be something sexual (and therefore bad?!). Bloody Mary hurt someone I cared about, so she must be a Monster. I'd have to re-read to see what she thinks of cheating - I kind of remember her saying she knew about Maytag cheating on her but stayed with her anyway, during Suspira's bitchy spell reveal moment - but I still get a sense of Bernadette's character being very righteously judgemental sometimes, in a bad way. I like that she's committed to being a "good person" by however she defines that standard. There seem to be too few of those in this comic, of the main characters who seem to give off the vibe of wanting to actively be "good guys" I count Bernadette and Crest. I thought rejecting her dream of becoming a knight to stay with Maytag was a real step in the direction of character growth, away from those judgemental tendencies. But I haven't seen that sort of growth re: her attitude towards sexuality. It's complicated I guess - I want to see Bernadette becoming more open-minded and forgiving, but I don't want to see her lose her core values or suddenly be down with engaging in a threesome or whatever.

I don't see that sort of interesting personal growth happening in this arena arc. If anything, the whole "I can't bend or break!" declaration while Polly was going to the wall for her over there really annoys me. As I said before, why wasn't she like that in the cell? It's almost hypocritical to find her resolve now. When she was fighting Elvis in that enchanted castle, she was ready to give up and die (and let Maytag and the others die too) because her fighting style didn't work, rather than lower her standards and use other people as meatshields to win. Here, she's a different person. All she does is lose a little sleep, shed a few guilty tears and get saved by her dad's magic swords, which was apparently all it took to recover her confidence. I haven't even got the sense that she's taking into account Polly's human shielding, as if she forgot about all of that now that she has the swords. Of course this chapter isn't over yet, so hopefully I will be eating my words later on. But I'm still not a happy camper yet.

I think that you are just seeing her character differently than how I see her as the writer. You were given the impression that she was tough as steel, and while I do think she is tough I also think that she has a bit of weakness on the inside. I think this gives her more humanity. That's not to say that she won't overcome problems, but it seems more natural for it to be a struggle.

See, while I agree that character growth comes from a struggle, I felt you passed over the ripest opportunity for her personal character growth - the part where she faces her struggles with her black and white stance on fidelity and temptation. That is, her relationship, or lack thereof, with Polly, despite her attraction. Fighting is all good and well, but that was the more interesting struggle for me, the mental one.

To show it's all good anyhow I did some fanart, LOL. Please don't laugh too hard, I haven't drawn comic art since 4 or 5 years now

Hmm. Just for the record, I love Bernadette. I think she's a hottie. Although her stance on nude artwork rubs me the wrong way, of all the characters in this comic (excepting perhaps Crest, I have to think about that) her strict moral compass is exactly the reason I like her the most. I know this makes me in a minority of the (vocal) readership, as most fans seem to think of Maytag and her swinging fanservice lifestyle as the be-all-end-all of cool, flexible behaviour. I do in fact think of these two ladies as opposite ends of a pole, and yet they still love one another, which for me is a very positive message and sort of the meta-point of this comic since Book 0 - why I still read it.

I wanted to establish that as background so you can have some context when I say this:

I find myself agreeing with Silverdrake on Bernadette's character development. Given what we know of her so far, my biggest surprise on this whole arc is what a wet towel she's been, especially before it led to the point of actual fighting in the arena. Her fighting style is based on predicting and blocking the movements of others. That she couldn't do this psychologically at all since arriving in - where is it? - Marvallo? - and meeting up with Polly has me shaking my head. The Bernadette established in this comic would have kicked Polly's ass - literally, to shut her up - and gotten her eye removed, before letting things escalate to this point. Yes, I know we need to see the swords in action. But as a Bernadette fan, I am still left unsatisfied with her choices and behaviour.

You know, I think I read the action wrong, I guess Beambro was trying to punch Bern at first and she blocked with the sword.

Background: hubby used to train with a European swordfighting reenactment group. I kind of suspect my moment of "Beambro can't possibly be that stupid" is coming unintentionally from the way the scene is drawn, as in angles the swords are held at / length of the swords / positions of bodies. Which is all right, drawing fight scenes is damn hard, I just want to point it out. And, "magic" can explain everything of course, deus ex machina.

Going off of reality, the first huh moment is that it looks like Bern is using European style bastard swords, one in each hand. Hubs, who is 6'2", can actually wield one ~2kg sword in one hand, but would not personally try to wield two at the same time, or in his words, "not if I want to live.". So either the swords are drawn too long, or they must be enchanted to weigh a lot less. And before we start on Bernadette's strength, if she's granted magic strength from the swords, see below. If she's not, her arms are drawn too skinny, flat chested or not.

Panel 3, the angle of her block, if it's a block (and why I thought initially Beambro went straight for her sword with his punch) - angle & length of sword + angle & length of her arm + we can even see her back = she is not in a planned block, because of the way her wrist has to be bent to hold the sword like that (even though we can't see it). At that position it absolutely has to be that the sword magically absorbs the force of the impact completely. If the swords were granting her strength to block in that position, and they're that long, physics says they would bend even slightly under the impact, even if she had the strength to stop it.

Plus, the portrayal of time flow. If the punch was instantaneously blocked by the sword, then he quickly grabbed said sword to try a second punch, I think panel 2 should have his fist already retreating when the other hand grabs. Otherwise, it looks like literally, he was aiming to punch the sword while Bernadette, standing passively behind those swords, looks on wonderingly. "What on earth does this guy think he's doing, doesn't he know we're in the middle of a fight? I'm right here you know..."

And then the grabbing thing. European swords were, by the time of the evolution of armour, not made to cut so they weren't all *that* sharp. But unless Bernadette was really standing passively, they could still damage the fingers without proper protection, which involves the use of metal (chain) gloves. Deus ex machina magic cloth gloves could explain this part though.

Just on the whole, when the initial shove aside move didn't work, for Beambro to then plant his feet, grab the sword with both hands, squeeze his eyes shut and grunt and shake while trying to make it budge, while Bern just stands limply and eyes him, makes me think he really is a glorified gorilla anyway. Here is where I yell at *Bern* to remember that she's still in a fight, for Maytag's sake, move yer ass and kick some already.

Being the intellectually deep and thoughtful poster that I am, I just want to say of page 18: that flat chested long haired supermodel in a gladiatorial bikini is my favourite type of eye candy. I didn't actually notice Beambro being neutered until I read this thread. Too busy looking at Bern's runway body there, oops.

I disagree completely but I find the plot, pacing and logic in that waste of a film to be so inferior to just about everything in this Flipside comic that I'll nod agreeably at you and get back on topic.

Oh my god!! Enough trying to dissect the science behind the last attack! This is a world where a woman heals from eating people, another woman is permanently invisible and tiny microscopic machines fill the entire planet creating magic.

So do you really think our worlds physics apply to theirs? lol

I actually enjoy these "nerdy" discussions, even though I feel in no way qualified to contribute to them. Grounding a fantasy world in science always makes more sense to me, if you're going to throw in scientific terms anyway. There are nanobots in this world already, why not go for the obvious and allow for basic physics, too.

One example of a big annoyance caught and "fixed" in post production by fan discussion of science? Han Solo's parsec comment in Star Wars. Fans actually managed to get the franchise to retcon that piece of nonsense into something vaguely workable with discussions just like these here right now. If the author has a plan, great! If the author doesn't have a plan, sometimes these kinds of debates can spawn great ideas, too.

Another example of a personal annoyance I had, when fantasy authors don't listen to basic logic? The Avatar movie. The successful guerilla warfare of the native aliens was turned into an all-American flat out frontal charge when they were united and led by a trained military human officer. Wat. I spent so much of my time on that final battle scene slapping my head and muttering to myself about how much life they could have NOT lost if they had just used basic kindergartner tactics and strategy, instead of a head on charge of basically dinosaurs against mecha. Yes, drama, plot, heroic scenes and sacrifices created more easily this way, blah blah blah, but I couldn't enjoy any of that because I was too caught up in feeling the writers had engaged in lazy storytelling to get to their point.

Also, as Neil DeGrasse Tyson said somewhere to somebody, "you can't ignore the laws of gravity just because you want to lose weight.". LOL! It's more fun when logic and science mixes with the fantasy, it allows me to suspend my disbelief more enjoyably :-)

My point is if Bern's swords negate that magic~ when he swinging the I-Beam... at that speed the inertia of the mass of the I-Beam is WAAY HIGH.. and his tightly gripping hand will feel all that tidal effect of the inertia he has imparted to it with his swing! Momentum is a bitch.. it will likely rip his fingers off if not pulverize every bone in his hands, as the grip violently flies out of his hands from the momentum of the swing... flesh & bone have their shear force limits... like everything else made of matter.

I'm going to preface this critique by saying openly that I personally suck at drawing action scenes, I just like reading them in comics ;-)

I'd like to suggest that the current action scene sequence between one-hit-wonder I-Beam Man and Bernadette could be a little more dynamic? I'm not quite sure how, but it seems to me that the power charge up scene of I-Beam is very static, him standing from a front angle with the weapon over his head for at least 2 panels, maybe more, intersposed with a straight on closeup of a wide-eyed Bernadette sweating, also for at least 2 panels or more. Maybe the angle could be changed for a sense of more drama or motion, even if he isn't moving much? Like a shot of him holding the sword over his head with the camera perspective from his feet to the sky, rather than frontal. Or his downswing from a camera perspective overhead at an angle, rather than 90-degree from the ground. I know this is all a lot harder to draw because dynamic perspective is damn hard - I hardly ever get it right on buildings, forget moving people - but just changing the camera angle a bit , even just a little, might help the story build more tension. Even freed from perspective difficulties, showing the weapon chargeup as a closeup of, say, his hand and wrist with veins bulging and just the handle of the weapon collecting power, instead of a front on perspective of the I-Beam "blade" held over his head sucking in power as it is now, might excite the sense of battle a little more. You don't need to go all Stan Lee's Spiderman on everybody, but just a little more dynamic perspective rather than just action lines, to really get the feel of motion in the action scenes.

Thanks for making the comic, please take this as a constructive criticism and not a complaint, it's not at all. I think you're a great artist and am enjoying this comic quite a lot, hence, the desire to leave a hopefully helpful critique. I understand drawing fight scenes is difficult and appreciate that you are doing one as well. :-)

I stand by my critique in the critique thread. I'd have taken option 3 if this arc hadn't been drawn out an extra 30 pages for the supposed "suspense" of nothing really happening besides the pages and pages of Polly and Bern feeling verbally guilty at one another. At this point I just want someone to get stabbed, LOL.

Usually I love Bernadette-centric arcs, but at the moment it feels like your decision to change the "Indomitable Blades" chapter (42) from 30 to 60 pages was a mistake. At least the "auction challenge" arc between the Warden, Polly and Bernadette feels extremely drawn out, as if several of the pages could have been condensed into a tighter story, perhaps one that didn't fit into 30 pages, but was much too short for 60 pages. I have the feeling of being fed a drawn out story for the sake of making a "standardized" print-publishing size of 30-page "blocks.". Sorry! I do generally enjoy this comic very much, too.

I can't even read the latest page (page 31) - every time I open it on my iPad I am immediately shunted to the app store for a game of some kind, *usually* Star Wars Commander. It is really, really fvcking annoying. Can you check the ads you're running on the page please?

He's the guy who rescued May and Bern from crazy collar knight on chapter 2 or 3 or something. You know, the pudgy, round glasses, "Don't cut your tits off Maytag!" sorcerer guy. I forgot if he was a part of the Conclave or not, though.

I will admit having a Mass Effect moment when i first saw his name again because it's been so long

Second panel. I missed it because it's so tiny (aside: that scene should've been bigger IMO) - Crest cured himself by stabbing himself in the heart, and even said "I feel weird" while the sword was sticking out of him.

EDIT except technically that's not his heart, he stabbed himself in the sternum (OUCH, he must be pretty strong!)? So maybe you are right

On the more interesting second question, maybe the flesh eating spell stopped spreading when the caster died? It'd be nice to have an official clue though.

It's an interesting theory. But it's also something I sort of wished wasn't introduced into the story, along the same lines of George Lucas explaining that the Force is really just mitochondria or something. I wants me magics and I don't wants no rational explanations of me magics etc. On the plus side this plot point is much more central and much more gracefully introduced into the comic than Lucas' stupid ass explanation of the Force, which was completely unnecessary IMO.

I'd guess it's because he's not 100% certain stabbing her in the heart won't kill her, and Crest really is friends with Suspira and not batshit like some other characters in this comic. ;-)

I did have a question, though maybe someone mentioned it before. How is the spell going to stop spreading? We saw in an earlier panel already that it was taking out the vegetation. Does it just peter out? Or is it going to keep going, hit the city, destroy the world as we know it, etc? (I don't think so, but I'm wondering how it dies out without taking out, well, everything with no counterspell.)